The Shivraj govt has taken a pathbreaking initiative in the cooperative sector. After introducing the registration of cooperative societies through an online process, now the Shivraj govt. has begun the process to appoint an Ombudsman in the state.
The mandate of the new body would be to look into complaints related to PACCs societies and 38 District Central Cooperative Banks spread across the state.
In this regard, the cooperative department has sent the proposal to the state government. A Retired IAS officer or additional or joint level registrar officers will be made Ombudsman for the concerned co-ops.
It will function in the same manner as the Ombudsman appointed for other banks. This system is being implemented for the first time in Madhya Pradesh.
It is noteworthy that more than 50 lakh farmers are associated with co-ops in the state and every year more than 25 lakh farmers are taking short-term agriculture loans from cooperatives. It is being said that for this, the government gives interest subvention of more than Rs 800 crore to district cooperative central banks.
The move is to save farmers as well as depositors who park their money in cooperative banks in good faith but due to irregularities, they have to move pillar to post to get their money back.
Sometime back many cases of fraud in the name of farmers came to light in which bogus accounts were created in their names. At present, the cases of misappropriation of funds are being heard by the registrar, assistant registrar, and joint registrar.
The issue of ombudsman in the country known as Lok Pal was a major political issue spearheaded by Anna Hazare. A Lokpal is an anti-corruption authority or body of ombudsman who represents the public interest in the Republic of India. The current Chairperson of Lokpal is Pinaki Chandra Ghose.
It is being said that the Insurance Ombudsman is proving to be helpful for people in the country. The Insurance Ombudsman scheme was created by the Government of India for individual policyholders to have their complaints settled out of the court’s system in a cost-effective, efficient, and impartial way.
There are at present 17 Insurance ombudsmen in different locations.